Boutique Bidding Site Stayful Officially Launches

Stayful.com, a new travel site focused on making it easier to book stays at independent and boutique hotels through a bidding process has officially launched to the public.

Stayful’s first-of-its-kind bidding system lets consumers choose what they want to pay and choose where they want to stay when they book up to 30 days in advance. They can directly offer a hotel a bid recommended by Stayful, a price the hotel is likely to accept and is even lower than the best rates online. When they make a bid, consumers can get an instant response directly from the hotel. Stayful also lists the best rates published anywhere online for each hotel, so travelers also have the option to secure that price immediately with the “Book Now” feature. During Stayful’s private beta, which opened to a limited number of users in July, customers booking through Stayful saw an average of 27 percent savings and as high as 42 percent compared to the lowest available rates online.

On an average night, independent and boutique hotels can have 40 percent of their rooms go unfilled. By offering these rooms through Stayful, hotels can provide guests with bigger savings while filling vacant rooms.

“Finding the right hotel AND the best price can be a frustrating process, and travelers are currently researching 21 sites on average to try and book their trips,” said Stayful co-founder and CEO Cheryl Rosner. “Stayful puts travelers in control of the whole process, providing more exciting options from an array of independent and boutique hotels like The Standard, The Lodge at Torrey Pines, and Public.”

Stayful is currently open for booking stays at independent boutique hotels in several major metropolitan areas including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and San Diego, and will be opening up in Seattle, New Orleans, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C., by the end of the year.

Stayful has already partnered directly with over 100 independent boutique hotels, offering travelers instant results when they bid for rooms. Stayful also gives travelers the ability to browse and book at a full inventory of every boutique and independent hotel available in a market. Even hotels not yet in the Stayful network can receive bids and then decide to join the network in the future.